🌊 Minecraft Strikes Gold at Box Office

Welcome back to the dire wolf.

Scientists have reportedly brought back the long-extinct dire wolf. Dire wolves — basically large gray wolves with bigger heads and sharper fangs — last roamed the Americas 10,000 years ago. Now, thanks to some genetic engineering and preserved dire wolf DNA, a company has brought back the ancient creature with three puppies. Given the prominent featuring of dire wolves in Game of Thrones (Punxsutawney Phil, is winter coming?), we can’t wait for the company’s next breakthrough: The revival of the white walker.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Market Madness

The US stock market experienced a 5-minute, ~$500B surge on Monday after CNBC incorrectly reported on a potential tariff pause

• Around 10:15 AM, a CNBC anchor reported that President Trump is considering a 90-day pause on new tariffs. While CNBC said, “We’ll try and source that, exactly where that came from,” Reuters quickly reposted the news, attributing the report to CNBC

• The news caused markets to surge, with the S&P 500 bouncing from a 4% loss to a 2% gain within minutes

• The White House denied the rumors minutes later, sending the stock market back down

Dig Deeper 

• After President Trump threatened additional 50% tariffs on China later in the day, the S&P 500 fell 1.7%

• On Monday, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink claimed the stock market could further decline by 20% as US tariffs are imposed

• Fink said he believes that that decline presents “more of a buying opportunity than a selling opportunity” in the long-run

KEY STORY

Minecraft Movie Debut

A Minecraft Movie surged to the top of the box office, becoming the highest-grossing opening for a video game adaptation ever

• A Minecraft Movie follows four misfits who are pulled into the video game and forced to survive

• The film brought in $163M this weekend, more than doubling Warner Bros’ $80M projection. The movie surpassed The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $146M opening and was the best-performing launch of any film since July 2024

• Prior to the movie’s debut, Hollywood had faced a box office dry spell, with revenue falling 11% in the first three months of 2025 compared to last year

Dig Deeper

• A Minecraft Movie also passed Ne Zha 2 in China’s box office, which held the top spot for 10 weeks and shattered records as the highest-grossing animated film globally with $2.1B in total sales

• Hollywood has struggled to make inroads in China’s movie market in recent years. Barbie earned just $35M, and Inside Out 2 $47M despite the two grossing $3.15B worldwide

• The success of A Minecraft Movie in China should ease Hollywood’s concerns of losing traction in the world’s close-second-largest moviegoing market

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY

Trade War Escalates

The global trade war continued on Monday as China and the EU responded to the US’ new tariffs

• Last week, President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports

• In response to the new tariffs raising duties on Chinese imports by 34%, China enacted retaliatory 34% tariffs on US exports. In response, Trump said, “If China does not withdraw its 34% increase… by tomorrow… the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%”

• The EU, meanwhile, reiterated its offer of a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal on cars and other industrial goods, meaning they’d drop their long-running 10% tariffs on US cars if the US repeals its new tariffs

Dig Deeper

• The escalation of the retaliatory tariffs has heightened concerns of a broader trade war pushing inflation higher and potentially causing a recession

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon released his annual letter to shareholders on Monday, warning that tariffs “will likely increase inflation and…a greater probability of a recession”

• Dimon added, “The quicker this issue is resolved, the better because some of the negative effects increase cumulatively over time and would be hard to reverse… My most serious concern is how this will affect America’s long-term economic alliances”

KEY STORY

Congo Mineral Deal

The US is nearing a deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

• The DRC is Africa’s second-largest country. It’s one of the continent’s poorest but most resource-rich countries, with vast deposits of critical minerals

• The DRC has also long been plagued by warfare, and in recent months, a Rwanda-backed rebel group known as M23 has seized multiple DRC cities

• The deal would provide US mining companies with access to critical minerals in exchange for increased US military support. After a meeting with DRC officials this weekend, a White House official said he and President Trump have “agreed on a path forward”

Dig Deeper

• It remains unclear what the US’ exact role would be in bolstering the DRC’s security

• However, the White House official said, “The US remains determined to support the ending of the conflict [with M23]”

• An agreement would counter Chinese control of much of the country’s natural resources

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🏀 The Florida Gators won the national championship last night, beating the Houston Cougars 65-63. It is the Gators’ third national championship

🪖 Multiple Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq told Reuters they are planning to disarm to avoid retribution from the Trump Administration, which has carried out large-scale strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis

⛹️ The men’s March Madness Final Four games between the top-seeded Auburn, Florida, Duke, and Houston recorded an eight-year high in viewership, averaging 15.3M viewers

🇳🇬 Over 52 people were killed and 2,000 displaced by gunmen in northern Nigeria, marking the region’s worst outbreak of violence since 2023

💰 Lottery company Mega Millions is raising ticket prices from $2 to $5 and lowering jackpot winning odds from 1 in 303M to 1 in 290M ahead of its Tuesday drawings

🧠 In an article in the journal Nature, scientists claimed they have observed for the first time how brain structures react when the brain becomes conscious of its own thoughts

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: Thoughts on this year’s March Madness?

🧐 Today’s Question: Is watching p*rn unhealthy? If so, why?

Reply to this email with your response!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🎥 Campaign Stop Misfire: Australian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accidentally injured a cameraman during a campaign stop

🏒 Ovechkin Passes Gretzky: Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin passed all-time great Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goalscorer

🎞️ Harrelson Misses White Lotus?: Woody Harrelson revealed that he turned down a role in HBO’s hit series White Lotus, which released its season finale on Sunday, because of a “family vacation”

⛳ Anger Management: A professional golfer on the Korn Ferry Tour played a tournament with tape over his mouth to suppress his angry outbursts

👮 Trafficking in Traffic: A crossing guard in Washington, DC was arrested for allegedly selling cocaine while on duty after police caught her conducting a hand-to-hand transaction at her assigned intersection

ROCA WRAP
The Most Isolated Tribe

An American YouTuber was arrested after visiting the world’s most isolated tribe on North Sentinel Island.

Located in the Bay of Bengal between India, Myanmar, and Thailand, North Sentinel Island is tiny — just 4.5 miles wide and less than five miles long. It is also home to the world’s most isolated tribe, who have lived untouched from the outside world for thousands of years.

The island is a protected territory of India, whose navy patrols the area to deter any unwanted visitors. Indian law prohibits any travel to the island and any approach closer than five miles to protect the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe on the island estimated to number between 50 and 200, from “mainland” diseases they have no immunity from.

The Sentinelese, meanwhile, are infamous for defending their isolation from outsiders, often violently. The islanders are known for shooting arrows at any boats or low-flying helicopters that get too close, but over the years, several “outsiders” have, by chance or by decision, visited the island. Some faced a quick death. In 2006, the tribe killed two fishermen whose boat had drifted ashore, and in 2018, they killed a Christian missionary who tried to contact the islanders three separate times.

Last week, an American YouTuber was arrested after illegally sailing to North Sentinel Island to record a video and collect sand. The YouTuber, a 24-year-old man from Scottsdale, Arizona, used a makeshift raft to travel from a nearby island. Once within reach of the land, he whistled to attract the islanders’ attention for an hour before briefly stepping on the island, where he left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as “offerings.”

The YouTuber was arrested by Indian police in Port Blair, the capital of the Indian-governed Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a chain of mostly uninhabited islands North Sentinel Island is part of. 

According to Indian police, he had sought to visit the island twice before in October last year and January. Police added, “He planned meticulously over several days to visit the island and make a contact with the Sentinel tribe.”

While the State Department said it has “no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad,” per a statement to NBC News, the American tourist faces up to five years in prison for his ill-fated YouTube video.

ROCA VIDEO
Inside a “Militia” Trailer Park

We met Johnny Horton Jr in NW New Mexico. Johnny is the leader of the United Constitutional Patriots. We spent 6 hours with him in his compound.

Despite not being there, Max T says this may be his favorite Roca video yet.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

A number of readers wrote in to say that we’ve overdone the sports talk in the intros. This is a tough one. On the one hand, sports are perhaps the most unifying part of our culture — movies, music, TV, and YouTube are far more segmented — and we’re always looking for unifying material. But on the other, there’s already so much sports content out there, and so many people hate sports or simply could not care less about them. So we get some readers who request more coverage, and some who want less, as there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos and that'll be a home run.

But in all seriousness, point taken. Have a great day.

–Max and Max